Prior art hierarchical storage management (“HSM”) systems migrate data from one storage technology, such as for example RAM memory, to another storage technology, such as for example magnetic disk. From magnetic disk the data might be migrated to magnetic tape for example. Such prior art methods necessarily require significant data processing overhead.
What is needed is an HSM apparatus and method that does not require that data be migrated from a first storage technology to a second storage technology. Applicants' apparatus and method provide an HSM method that monitors historical data access requests, and predicts future data access requests, and based upon those historical and predictive analyses, disposes data storage media at an appropriate location within Applicants' data storage facility. Unlike prior art HSM apparatus and methods which migrate data from one storage technology to another storage technology, Applicants' apparatus and method move data storage media to appropriate locations in Applicants' data storage facility.